Digital video recorders, sometimes referred to as personal video recorders, and the features and functions provided by them are well known in the art. Exemplary digital video recorders include standalone devices, such as the TiVO or Replay TV brand products, digital video recorders which are physically integrated into television sets, cable or satellite set top boxes, personal computers or media center servers having digital video recorder functionality implemented via a software application, etc. which are collectively referred to hereinafter as digital video recorders or DVRs. The existing state of DVR technology may be found in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,701,383, 6,233,389, 6,360,053, 6,642,939, 6,757,906, 6,850,691 or U.S published Patent Applications 2005/0262539A1, 2005/0108769A1 or 2005/0210524A1 each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This existing DVR technology has gained wide acceptance by consumers and, amongst other purposes, is frequently utilized for “time shifting,” that is recording broadcast program content for later viewing at a more convenient time. One of the benefits of time shifting is that during subsequent playback, the user has the ability to skip through commercial advertising segments, typically by using a “fast forward” or “quick skip” key on the remote control provided with the DVR. However, though popular with owners of DVRs, exercise of this capability still requires the attention and active involvement of a user each and every time an item of recorded program content is viewed.
Also known in the art are systems and methods for creating ringtones from digitally recorded media. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,103,391 describes a method for defining a segment of a digital music file already stored on a phone to be used as a ringtone through use of a ringtone manager application that is also resident on the phone. U.S. Pat. No. 7,142,645 further describes a method for generating personalized ringtones by inserting a customized audio segment into a master clip at a predefined point where the master clip is stored in a database together with metadata defining the insertion point of the customized audio segment. U.S. Application No. 2007/0112977 still further describes a method that allows a user to connect to a remote location, such as a website, upload a sound file from their computer to the website, edit the sound file to the user's taste, and download the new sound file onto a mobile device.